News & Announcements Archive


Michael McCloskey Featured in A&S Magazine

Michael McCloskey Featured in A&S Magazine
"Turning Spaghetti Into Numbers": Prof. Michael McCloskey recently identified a reading impairment called alphanumeric visual awareness disorder, or AVAD. Click to read the article.


Launch of the Science of Learning Institute

Launch of the Science of Learning Institute
Launched in January 2013, the institute will leverage Johns Hopkins' wealth of experience in the field, bringing together an estimated 500-plus scholars and researchers from the brain sciences, education, engineering, medicine, arts, and many other disciplines, says Barbara Landau, the institute's director.


How Crossword Puzzles Unlocked An Artist’s Memory

How Crossword Puzzles Unlocked An Artist’s Memory
This NPR article discusses how Dr. Barbara Landau and her team are working to unravel some of the mysteries of memory with the aid of an artist who contracted viral encephalitis in 2007 which destroyed her hippocampus and parts of her left temporal lobe. This artist is still able to create art, it's just different now. It can be seen at an exhibit in the Walters Art Museum. [audio available]


Artificial Grammar Reveals Inborn Language Sense

Fifty years ago, linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky proposed humans are able to learn language so quickly because some knowledge of grammar is hardwired into our brains. Now, in a groundbreaking study, cognitive scientists at The Johns Hopkins University have confirmed a striking prediction of the controversial hypothesis that human beings are born with knowledge of certain syntactical rules that make learning human languages easier.


Prof. Wilson talks about love for research, teaching

Prof. Wilson talks about love for research, teaching
Johns Hopkins News Letter | [H]ow are you comprehending the words that are on this page? How are you able to understand your friend sitting next to you as she worries about her fast-approaching midterm? How are you able to string a sentence together that will relieve her worries? These are the little phenomena that Colin Wilson, Associate Professor in the Cognitive Science Department, is passionate about.


Linguistics Program Ranked as #1 by NRC

In it's 2010 report "A Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States", the National Research Council ranked the Johns Hopkins Department of Cognitive Science as one of the top departments in the country in which to study linguistics.


Dr. Barbara Landau Featured in JHU’s A&S Magazine

Dr. Barbara Landau Featured in JHU’s A&S Magazine
After a decade of research, cognitive scientist Barbara Landau is mapping new territory in Williams syndrome—a rare condition that has long baffled scientists. Click to read the article in Arts & Sciences magazine.


Barbara Landau Named a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow

Barbara Landau Named a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow
Dr. Landau's scientific research addresses the nature of human spatial understanding, the nature of language, and the relationship between the two during early development and in adulthood. The Guggenheim Fellowship will allow her to spend a full year writing a book on the nature of spatial knowledge and language in people with Williams syndrome.